I have five internal 200GB+ IDE PATA hard drives that are each housed in their own external caddie and connect to my PC via USB 2.0. I use them to back up my data that's on my PC. But it's beginning to get a bit ridiculous having all these external enclosures lying around so I'm wondering whether anyone knows of a type of hardware that would house all five hard disks in one large single enclosure? Basically like a PC tower but without all the PCI slots, motherboards or video cards etcc..just some fans (or other cooling device), power supply and a USB connection (or maybe wireless connection for faster data transfer>?). Ideally I would also be able to turn on any of the hard drives at one time instead of all of them having to be on when the power supply is connected. This way I can just connect the tower to my PC and backup my data. Thanks for any responses.
well, the easiest way to go would be to add a PCI HDD controller (then all 5 HDD's could be accessable at the same time) or you could leave 1 or 2 HDD's in their external enclosures if you wish
I am not familiar with any kind of enclosure system like that. To be honest, most people who want to run that many hard drives choose a SCSI based system. Running intensive i/o through USB will severly limit your computer's performance
Well thanks for the replies guys. I've found the following items so far which should be suitable to my needs: -Addonics External Hard Drive solution from Addonics -Icy Dock mb810akf (fits 5 X 3.5" ATA HDs) Welcome to ICY DOCK USA -4u Rackmount Case (7x 3.5") [research interface type IDE/SATA] 4u Rackmount Case No Psu --- rackmount case psu black fans atx, 4u rackmount case no psu , motherboards usb hdd fan led from aria .co. uk What would your opinions be on the above products for storing IDE 3.5" HDs? And do you have any more suitable alternatives, I've read that I could actually just purchase a large PC tower and stores the HDs in there but my only problem would be connecting it to my own PC...surely I would need a motherboard inside the tower to operate any USB ports or PCI SCSI drives? Thanks
